Costs and Benefits
by Lys ap Adin
Summary: What could be more important than baseball? Sena, Monta; Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto. Gen.


**Title:** Costs and Benefits**  
Characters/Pairings:** Sena, Monta; Tsuna, Gokudera, and Yamamoto**  
Summary:** What could be more important than baseball?**  
Notes:** General audiences. For Round III of KHRfest, prompt _II-47. Any – crossover: Eyeshield 21; "games and winners and costs"_. Crossover, obviously. 1308 words.

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**Costs and Benefits**

Sena wondered sometimes whether a person just _had_ to be crazy to play American football, like it was just required somewhere in the rules, like the helmet and the pads and everything else. He was starting to think that it was and trying not to think about what that said about _him_.

At least he could console himself with the fact that no matter what, Monta was always going to be weirder than he was. That was just a given. Why Monta's peculiarities should require him to run over to three strangers in the park, though, Sena didn't exactly know.

He trudged over to find out, of course. They were middle schoolers, by the looks of it, though it was anyone's guess what school they attended. The one Monta was babbling at, to the accompaniment of huge gestures and a lot of what sounded like arcane baseball talk to Sena, was tall and grinning amiably, though it looked like he had absolutely no idea what Monta wanted. The second was a guy whose scowl looked like it lived on his face permanently. He was giving Monta a glare like absolute death, and had maneuvered himself to stand between Monta and the third guy. The third guy was small, and skinny, and had a faintly bemused, faintly bewildered look in his eyes that sent a sudden rush of recognition and sympathy running through Sena. There was just something about the guy's posture, something that was vaguely startled, that said, _Wait, how did I get myself into this again?_ that gave Sena a sense of kinship to the kid.

"Uh, hi," he said, which caused the one with the scowl to try and get between both him and Monta and the third guy, all at the same time. It was funny to watch, if a little weird. "I'm Kobayakawa. Um, sorry about Monta. Guess he and your friend know each other?"

"I guess so," the third guy said, with a wry little smile and a glance at his friend. "I'm Sawada. This is Gokudera. Um, nice to meet you?"

Gokudera didn't seem particularly enthused about being introduced and grunted something that might have been a greeting, if one was generous. Sena supposed that it took all kinds. "Nice to meet you," he said, and cast around for something polite to say while Monta and the other guy talked about--something to do with baseball, anyway. "So, do you play baseball too?"

"Good God, no," Gokudera said, in evident disgust.

Sena could feel his eyebrows going up, which was when Sawada said, quickly, "Um, he means that no, we don't. We're not really the sporty types, but Yamamoto is!"

Gokudera punctuated that with something muttered under his breath that sounded like, "Thank God for small mercies."

Sawada talked over that, brightly, like he had a lot of practice doing so. "Do you play baseball, then?"

"Um, no, actually," Sena said. "Actually, I play football. Um, the American kind. For Deimon High. So does Monta." That earned him a doubtful sort of look from both of them; well, he supposed he couldn't blame them. He didn't look like a football player, even now. But since the matter had come up, he supposed he was required to ask (because Hiruma-san would _hunt him down_ if he didn't, and somehow he would _know_, because he was just terrifying like that). "Have you ever thought about playing American football? We're recruiting for next year's team."

Gokudera just snorted while Sawada went a little round-eyed. "Um, no thank you," he said, hastily.

Not that Sena could blame him. "Yeah, I figured. Well, I had to ask." That duty dispensed with, Sena cast around for another bit of possible chit-chat. He'd just settled on asking them where they went to school when Monta came to the rescue.

Sort of.

"What do you _mean_, you've _quit baseball_?" Monta's voice rose with every word, sharp and indignant, and he was waving both of his arms, kind of like a windmill of righteous indignation.

"Um, well." The guy--Yamamoto, Sena assumed--rubbed the back of his neck. "It was a while ago now, actually."

"But you were _amazing_!" Monta nearly wailed it, looking like his distress was cutting him to the very core. Or maybe his stomach was upset; it could be hard to tell with Monta. "Why would you just give that up?"

"I found something that was more important to do instead." Yamamoto said it easily, just like that.

Sena had most of his attention on Monta, who looked like he couldn't believe that he was hearing that there was anything more important than _baseball_, but he still didn't miss the way Sawada smiled at that, sudden and bright, or the way that Gokudera's scowl softened up, just fractionally. Which was interesting, if a little confusing, though he supposed he probably wouldn't ever know what was going on there.

But there were more important things to worry about. "Sometimes that happens, right, Monta?" he asked, before Monta could plunge into whatever he was about to say in response to Yamamoto's declaration. Not that he could entirely blame Monta for being upset, if this Yamamoto guy had been as good at baseball as Monta was implying that he'd been. Maybe, if he were Monta, he'd be upset by that, too.

Monta opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. Finally he huffed, frowning. "...I guess."

Yamamoto rubbed the back of his neck again. "It's one of those things," he said, with a little smile. "Some things you just gotta do, because they're really that important." He seemed to consider it. "And besides. This is more fun than baseball."

Sena didn't miss the way that Gokudera rolled his eyes at that, mouthing something that, upon reflection, Sena decided he was just as happy not catching. Monta didn't look at all convinced, but before he could launch into further argument--and it was Monta, he'd argue all afternoon, even with a conviction like that--Sawada glanced at his watch. Both Yamamoto and Gokudera jumped at the way he yelped, like they were coming to some kind of alert or defense. "We're late! Reborn expected us five minutes ago!"

"Shit," Gokudera said, as the smile on Yamamoto's face took on a slightly fixed quality.

Sena couldn't help wondering if this Reborn of theirs was anything half as bad as Hiruma-san. "Well," he said, cheerfully, "I guess you'd better get going. It was nice meeting you."

"Nice meeting you, too," Sawada said, distractedly, and the three of them took off running, like the devil himself was on their heels. Maybe their Reborn _was_ pretty bad.

"Huh," Monta said. "I can't believe he _gave up baseball_."

"Sounded like he had a good reason for it," Sena said, watching the three of them recede in the distance.

"It's a waste," Monta grumbled.

"You can't have everything," Sena told him, though Monta didn't seem much inclined to listen to it. Well, Sena had the solution for that. "C'mon, I bet Mamori-san is starting to wonder where we are."

Monta cheered up immediately. "Then we'd better hurry," he said. "Come on, I'll race you there."

"You know I'll beat you," Sena pointed out, in the spirit of fairness.

"Not if I have a head start," Monta told him, and took off running.

"Hey!" Sena protested, laughing, and took off after him, already forgetting about the odd little meeting, except for the last fleeting curiosity about what Yamamoto had decided was more important to him than baseball. It had to have been something big, he decided, thinking about the way he and his friends had worked together like some kind of unit.

And then he overtook Monta, and forgot all about it the laughing, friendly argument over their impromptu race, and moved on to more important things.

**end**

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